An Arts-Filled, Tasty And Sometimes-Loopy Jaunt Through Life

No one ever said that finding a pawpaw would be easy, though the article (click here) published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on September 20 seemed to indicate that it wouldn’t be as tough as I’ve discovered it to be. Anyhow, search I did, coming up emptyhanded. Which is okay. You win some, you lose some, to toss in a cliché that’s hard to beat. But I haven’t given up the fight! No way. Pawpaw vibes are in the air. Someday, somewhere, I’m certain that I’m going to meet a pawpaw in the flesh.

“So, what the f*ck is a pawpaw?” you delicately ask. Well, everything that I know about pawpaws, which I’d never heard of before, comes from the short article mentioned above. It contains all that I need or want to know, as I like to avoid extensive, extended research whenever possible. That article, igniting a spark within me, sent me on a quest that has resulted in another pawpaw-related piece. Namely, the one you’re reading.

“So, what the f*ck is a pawpaw?” you delicately ask once again. Well, it’s an obscure fruit. It looks like a mango, has a tropical sort of taste, and is creamy in texture. Pawpaw trees are native to many eastern swathes of North America, and their fruit was popular with native Americans and with early colonists. George Washington, for instance, loved pawpaws for dessert.

But pawpaws no longer are well known. They bruise easily and get over-ripe pretty fast. Consequently they don’t meet the demands of today’s retail world, according to the article. Hell, bananas bruise easily and get over-ripe pretty fast too, but there are billions of them on store shelves. So, there must be more to the story than that.

Whatever, it’s an undeniable fact that pawpaws are hard to come by. Sure, pawpaw trees exist in the Philadelphia region, in which I reside. There just ain’t a lot of ’em. If you know the right people though, or are in the right place at the right time, a pawpaw or two or more will be yours. The right time is now, by the way, since pawpaws are an autumn fruit.

The day after I read the article I left the house to try and find a pawpaw. If anyone near me carried the item, I figured it would be the Whole Foods supermarket about three miles away. They didn’t. “So, what the f*ck is a pawpaw?” two of the store’s produce department workers almost said to me when I made my inquiry. I tell you, I was surprised not to have success at Whole Foods. I mean, they carried cherimoyas and jackfruit, which were new to my radar screen, so why not pawpaws? Ah, the mysteries of life.

A half hour later, at my local Giant supermarket, I also ran into a dead end. Phone calls would be easier and quicker than driving around, it then dawned on me. So back home I called Weaver’s Way Co-Op in Ambler, a town seven miles from mine (the several branches of Weaver’s Way were noted in the article as possible purveyors of pawpaws). The guy I spoke with was full of information. Yeah, he said, they’d received a 10-pound shipment of pawpaws a few days earlier. And sold them all that same day. He had no idea if or when they’d get any more of the bad boys. Not many pawpaw trees are under cultivation, he told me. I thanked him, hung up, and placed a few more calls.

They proved to be fruitless. Creekside Co-op, three towns distant from mine, had never heard of pawpaws. Neither had the Trader Joe’s or the Wegmans supermarket in my area. Neither had the branch of Weaver’s Way located in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood. Nor the Produce Junction a seven-minute drive from my house.

Hell, that about did it for me. I mean, often I’m a glutton for punishment, but occasionally I know when not to keep beating my head against the wall. There are at least 12 other stores with creative produce sections that I could have dialed. But all of them are 10 or more miles from me. Even if one of them had pawpaws in stock, was it worth a long roundtrip to obtain the fruit?

Uh-uh, baby. Uh-uh.

And so ends my pawpaw saga. For now. When the day arrives that I cross paths with a pawpaw (and I know I will, as I’ve already stated), I’ll work that magnificent occurrence into a story. Even if it doesn’t fit I’ll shove it in! I’m fairly good at that, you know.

As for now, I’m rapidly tiring of writing about pawpaws. It’s refreshment time. Goodbye till we meet again, amigos. I’m about to ease my busy fingers from my computer’s keyboard and head into the kitchen to pop open a bottle of the king of beverages. Beer. I’m sure that it will taste at least as good as a pawpaw would. Skoal!

116 thoughts on “No One Ever Said That Finding A Pawpaw Would Be Easy”

I have never heard of these before, and they sound delicious. I would like to try them too. I understand your frustrations too though. Every fall my husband starts looking for northern spy apples which is a heritage variety. Sometimes he finds them, sometimes not. Interesting piece. 🙂

In my part of the world paw-paws are very easy to find. They are a tropical fruit, so I’m amazed to hear that they grow in the Eastern parts of the States – I’m not too sure we’re talking about the same thing at all., In fact, looking at your pic, that fruit does not resemble any paw-paw I ever ate. African paw-paws have tiny round black seeds inside the globe shaped fruit – greenish thin skin that turns yellow and protects the juicy orangey-pink juicy flesh inside. When I was growing up in Malawi (East Africa) we had paw-paw trees in our garden – you always have to grow them in pairs, M & F, otherwise the trees don’t bear fruit.

I’m sticking with the good old Red Delicious apple. Which may say something about my lack of curiosity about things new and exotic, but so be it. Will look forward to your further pawpawnian adventures.

I had expected your search to bring you out into the countryside rather than to various fruits and vegetable shops. It is a native fruit so must be there somewhere. Our most commonly picked wild fruit here in Ireland is the blackberry and we still see people picking them along our road occasionally but not as regularly as years back when it was commonplace to pick them to make jam. Anyway, keep searching for the elusive pawpaw, the search will make it all the sweeter when found.

I applaud your dedicated search for the elusive pawpaw. In my childhood home, Fiji, the common name for papaya is pawpaw. One of our favourite songs at school was “Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch” https://youtu.be/gD7IpkiO2fM although we sang ‘basket’, not pocket. How this Appalachian folk song found its way to a British colony, I have no idea. Possibly American seafarers, traders, beche-de-mer traders, whalers, servicemen…..? The American native pawpaw didn’t find its way to Fiji, or if it did, it didn’t survive. I actually had no idea that pawpaw and papaya were two very different fruits, until about 2 years ago. So, that’s my addition to the pawpaw saga. Need another beer?

Hi there. Your info is much appreciated. There’s a lot to the histories of pawpaws and papayas, and just about everything else!. As for beer, I’ll have one with dinner, about 7 hours from now. Probably a bottle of Palm, which is a Belgian ale. See ya’ —

This is the only tropical-type fruit that’s native to Michigan…that state even has a town named Pawpaw! From what I can tell online, this is the month in which they’re usually available, there. I no longer live in Michigan, or I’d send you some:)

I’d always thought of them as a Deep South thing, like something from those Uncle Remus stories – I looked it up, and they’re supposed to grow as far north as southern Ontario, but I’ve never seen or heard of one growing wild in NY or PA. A fruit tree nursery in Canandaigua (Finger Lakes), I think, was offering a hybrid for colder climates, so a few years ago, my sister planted some in our parents’ backyard. It’s a fast-growing tree, . The fruit is kind of like mulberries or watermelons – in that, the perfect ripeness is very short, I think it’s about a three-day window, and on either side, it’s either unripe or overripe. The too-soft ones, she feeds to her tortoises, who love them. if you get them exactly ripe, they’ve got a delicious banana/custard kind of thing going

Neither have I heard nor have I seen a pawpaw in my whole life, Neil. When I read the title, I thought pawpaw was an animal, about the same size as a bear. How ridiculous! 😃 Pawpaws look delicious and tasty, hope the wholesalers/retailers here would soon get some into their supermarket chains. I’d love to have some. As usual, I love the humour throughout the post.

Hi Isabelle. If you end up eating a pawpaw before I do, please let me know how it was. By the way, a few comments above yours are the comments from Robert parker. He has a lot of interesting info about pawpaws.

Neil, as ever, you’ve illuminated a corner of knowledge previously dark to me. To be honest, I thought a pawpaw came off some sort of a cactus. That’s probably because of that line in ‘Bear Necessities’ from the Jungle Book using the name of your fruit in the same line as a prickly pear…

I’ve learned a lot about pawpaws from the comments of various readers today. And that includes you. I had no idea that the word appeared in The Jungle Book. The Jungle Book pawpaw, though, would have been different than the pawpaw found in North America: As I’ve learned today, two or three unrelated fruits go by that same name.

This is a word of many surprises. Where I grew up in Jamaica, paw paw was a fruit (aka payaya). Bright orange flesh, tiny black seeds, sweet when ripe and perfect with a squeeze of lime or blended up in a milkshake.

But then I learned on US TV that Paw Paw (aka Pee Paw) was the husband of Mee Maw (aka Maw Maw), both unpalatable monikers for grandparents. I am now the qualifying age for grandparent-dom, potentially. Huh. I need to tell my children the names of which I must not be called; Mee Maw is one of them.

Now you’re telling me that Paw Paw is a fruit but a fruit entirely different from the one I know. One of my Google searches says it’s a relative to the cherimoya (aka custard apple, aka sweet sop) all of which I remember from by childhood in sunny tropical lands. I wouldn’t have guessed they’d grow our temperate northern climate.

Hi. You know, maybe the North American pawpaw has common roots with other fruits found around the world. From what you you and other commenters have mentioned today, that sounds like it might be the case. Anyway, I’ll continue to have my eyes open for a North American pawpaw. See you —

Thank goodness beer is not so elusive…
I did not know that the fruit existed…now my husband is trying to find someone selling seeds for the next unfortunate visitor from the U.S.A. to bring down in the suitcases…..

Hey there Neil, Your quest is over. Every year mid September – The Paw Paw festival in Albany, Ohio (Check out their website) – They have everything Paw Paw including Beer – see you there next go around. All the best, Jerry

I always thought “paw-paw” was the name my kids had for my father-in-law. Did they know something I don’t?? Would love to try one of these one day, maybe next time I buy a plantain. Till then, Neil, I’ll swig my Yuengling while you swig your Fat Tire.

Hello there, Pete. Yuengling is one of the oldest, and maybe the oldest, brewery in the USA. I think it’s family-owned. Take care, and let me know if you come across a pawpaw (the fruit, not your father-in-law).

After I read the piece I went over to my Gal who was having a leisurely cup of tea and reading a book. I said “Gal. What is a Pawpaw?”. She took a sip, set her book down and said “Fruit CB”. Ain’t she wonderful.

Hi Michele. Based on the comments posted by several people, it seems that pawpaws are pretty well known in certain states (Ohio and Michigan, for instance). But where I live (in the Philadelphia region), they are very hard to come by. Have a great rest of the week. Thanks for dropping by.

Right you are Neil.
I think the closest we have in Australia to what I believe is being referenced to in this discussion, is something we call down here the ‘custard apple’ (although over here, just to add another layer of confusion, the custard apple is rounder rather than oblong).

I’m pretty sure the only time I’ve heard of a pawpaw is within the lyrics of Bare Necessities, sung by the animated bear Baloo in Disney’s Jungle Book:

Now when you pick a pawpaw
Or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw
Next time beware
Don’t pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear
Try to use the claw
But you don’t need to use the claw
When you pick a pear of the big pawpaw….

This has turned out to be an unusual essay for me. I wrote it because of a newspaper article that caught my eye. But as I mentioned in the essay, I relied on that newspaper article for info about pawpaws. I didn’t do any further research into pawpaws (I am not a fan of research!). As it turns out, there’s a whole lot more to pawpaws than the newspaper article indicated. That article is about North American pawpaws. It doesn’t mention that other parts of the world have fruits that are also called pawpaws, though those fruits are different from the North American pawpaw. Anyway, if I’d done further research before writing this story, then I wouldn’t have received as many interesting comments as I did.

I’ve been reading about pawpaws all of my adult life—addicted as I am to ‘Deep South” novels! In fact, eating one has been on my ‘to do’ list for decades. But now that I know how elusive they are, heck, I’m giving up!

I have great news for you, Neil. I know where you can find pawpaws–lots of them. Curiosity drove me to google for a pic of these legendary fruits, and bingo! I recognized them as the very mystery objects the squirrels have been retrieving for days now from some neighbor’s yard (sorry, not sure which neighbor) and lugging across my back fence, occasionally dropping one on the patio. As I’m less research-averse than you, apparently, I googled “do squirrels eat pawpaws” (they do) and came up with this gem from some garden Q&A site:

“We live in a wooded area of Buena Vista, Virginia and I’ve just discovered a huge, huge patch of paw paw trees….how can I get rid of the trees?”

Virginia, Neil, there’s your answer. And this lady is dying to get rid of her pawpaws. I suggest you get in touch quick, before the squirrels have squirreled them all away for the winter.

‘Intrigued’ I think is being quite polite about it Neil.
‘Mesmerized’ and ‘transported’ are actually closer to my reactions to the reaction to this – the Great Paw Paw Post.
I don’t mind saying it’s been quite the education!

I think for Neil’s sake and for the sake of Paw Paw’s the world over, we should try to get the comments total to the magic century mark. C’mon everyone. There’s fruit still ripe for picking on this tree yet!

I’ve never even heard of this fruit before, but I’m going to keep an eye out. In my small town, I don’t have access to the same resources you have, but I have to say I admire your tenacity! You are one determined person!

The next comment posted on paw paws, which has truly been one of the most fascinating and engage-worthy topics of 2018 for YEAH ANOTHER BLOGGER will be the 100th. I believe that honour should rightly go to who else but Neil himself.

Neil, I’m a little late joining the conversation. Thank you for this post. I’ve heard of pawpaws all my life, but I’ve never seen or tasted one. Incidentally, on the finale of “The Chef and the Farmer” on PBS last night, Vivian Howard did a whole segment about pawpaws. I hadn’t thought about pawpaws in a long time. Reading some of the numerous comments above, I was pleased to be reminded of the words to the Appalachian folk song we sang as children in NC. Very entertaining post and comments.

I about died when I got to your second paragraph because I was indeed thinking, “What the f*ck is a paw paw?” haha! But now I REALLY want to try a paw paw. Damn you for introducing me to paw paws. Continue your search and write about it PLEASE!

Florida has many places selling exotic fruit, but pawpaw isn’t one of them. So, I turned to Google. Most places sell trees but a few like Rocky Point Farm in R.I. sell the fruit.
Like the above readers, now you have me wanted to try to find one the next time I’m up your way.

When I saw the title of this post, I laughed out loud. Back when I was a butterfly monitor for the Nature Conservancy, I was urged to get out there and find a zebra swallowtail. They require paw paw trees for their larva, so off I went in search of a paw paw tree. Down into briar y ravines, tripping over roots, poked by branches, scratched by thorns… never did find one. I think I’ll plant some, though. Maybe the swallowtails will come to me.